The Art of Game Creation

[Darkness Ascendant]

13 hours ago, Straw said:

@Darkness_ No, you would not be able to change your vote until that player died.

Query, in this case, could you organise them as Passive and Active? or Triggered etc

You say one off, but that's not enough for me to make sense of it.

[Sparkrunner]

Writing out a game set in Ashyn! (Probably no spoilers-- We don't know much.) Basically, it is all set around getting sick. I want it to be *somewhat* of a blackout game (not really) @Alvron who can I talk to about it?

 

[Sparkrunner]

PM me for the link to the rough draft!

[DrakeMarshall]

I think I have an idea. It's kind of a crazy one. It might even be a terrible one. But hey, here it is:

---

QF: Alpha Complex

Introduction

Welcome, Citizen, to Alpha Complex!! It is the dawn of year 214 of the Computer, and Alpha Complex is threatened by traitors!
Friend computer wants YOU to help fight the commie-mutant-traitor threat! Sign up today for your first mission!
The Computer is making a 1 TIME OFFER to promote the first 10 volunteers to RED clearance!
The nature of your first mission is above your current security clearance, until you accept said mission.
Furthermore, the existence of this mission is above your current security clearance, thus, failure to enlist for this mission would be treasonous.

Rules and Regulations

1. Knowledge of certain rules is treason.
2. This mission requires 10 participants. Any fewer and the mission will not run. No more than 10 participants will be accepted on this mission.
3. You are a troubleshooter. Your job is to find trouble, and shoot it.
4. Traitors, mutants, communists, improper paperwork, and [REDACTED] are all trouble. The Computer said so, and the Computer is your friend.
5. Friend computer has generously decided to supply each participant with 3* complimentary clones.
6. Cycles last 24 hours, unless the Computer says they do not.
7. Participants may covertly perform 2 actions every cycle. The following exceptions apply: [THIS INFORMATION IS YELLOW CLEARANCE AND ABOVE]. Please take this time to remember that the Computer is your friend, and hiding things from the Computer may constitute grounds for fining, probation, and/or summary execution.
8. Roleplay may influence the mission. Attempts to unduly leverage this fact are treasonous, and citizens found to be engaging in such activity will summarily be executed.
9. Inactivity is treasonous, and dereliction of duty will be met with summary execution.
10. You have been granted clearance for PMs, even group PMs. Friend Computer would like to take this time to remind you to avoid using this privilege for the purposes of traitorous collusion.
11. You are of RED clearance. Wear red at all times. Do not enter areas above RED or INFRARED clearance. For your safety, please obey citizens above RED clearance.
12. Upon completion of the mission, citizens will be appropriately debriefed.
[CENSORED AT YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE]
17. In the highly unlikely scenario that a troubleshooter finds themselves in mortal danger while on a mission, DON'T PANIC**.
[CENSORED AT YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE]
213. I've never played Paranoia, and I have no storming idea what I'm doing. This information is above your clearance level. Knowledge that this information is above your clearance is also above your clearance level.
214. Fun is Mandatory.

*Some of you may have heard rumors that troubleshooters are customarily given 5 clones, and that the Computer is in error to generously grant you 3 clones. Such rumors are obviously the work of the Commies, and should be reported. Any allegations that the Friend Computer may be in error are treasonous.
**Unless ordered to do so by a citizen of higher clearance, or the Computer.

---

So... If it wasn't already clear, this game is not meant to be a serious, competitive game. Indeed, it's nearly the opposite of serious and competitive.

It would be fastpaced and chaotic (it is, after all, inspired by Paranoia). The bar would be low for concentrated analysis. The sole objective would be fun (see rule#214).

It is probable that I am not equipped to design all of this. If the idea were approved I would want to partner with somebody to figure this out.

It is my hope that this might be a novel way to address some of the matters recently discussed in the meta thread.

Thoughts?

[Darkness Ascendant]

Something tells me the Computer could be a communist itself all things considered.

[Straw]

So, I had an idea for a game set on Ashyn:

Basics:

 

-Each cycle will be 24 hours long, with rollover at 5:45 PM EST.
-PMs are allowed. Group PMs are not allowed.
-This game follows the standard rules.

Factions:

 

Incubators: You are the Village faction. Your win con is to kill all the Spies.

Spies: You are the Eliminator faction. Your win con is to outnumber the Incubators. You have a doc and group kill every cycle to help you accomplish your win con.

Diseases:

 

Each Disease has a power, weakness, and length. The power represents the power you gain from the disease, the weakness represents the negative effect of the disease, and the length represents the number of cycles you have the disease for. When a player first gets a disease, they get to choose who is will eventually pass to. When a player dies, all of their diseases are passed to random players. A player can have multiple diseases.
 
Flight: At the end of each cycle, a random vote on you is removed. You are unable to vote on any players. This disease lasts for two cycles.

Regeneration: You can survive one kill/lynch. To all Clairvoyants, you will appear to be a Spy with no diseases.

Telepathy: You can create group PMs. You cannot talk in any PMs. You must start all PMs you make with “This is a PM.” This disease lasts for three cycles.

Forcefields: You can protect one player each cycle. You cannot get any new diseases. This disease lasts for two cycles.

Clairvoyance: Each cycle, you can discover the role and alignment of a player of your choice. You are unable to say the names of any players, except for when you vote on them. This disease lasts for three cycles.

Superspeed: You have two actions. If you do not make a post every cycle, you will die. This disease lasts for five cycles.

Invisibility: You cannot be targeted with any actions, and you cannot be killed by the vote or the inactivity filter. You cannot talk or use any actions. This disease lasts for one cycle.

Shapeshifting: You can choose what your role and alignment appear to be. All of your posts must be fewer than 50 words. This disease lasts for two cycles.

Illusions: You can change the vote of one player to a player of your choice. You cannot vote for anyone. This disease lasts for three cycles.

Poison Touch: Each cycle, you can target a player and they will eventually die. The player you target will only die when they vote for you (even if they change their vote). Each cycle, if you do not vote for a player, you will die. This disease lasts for one cycle. If this disease is held by an Eliminator, they must pass it to someone who is not an Eliminator.

 

Edited January 1, 2018 by Straw

[DrakeMarshall]

On 1/1/2018 at 2:11 AM, Darkness_ said:

Something tells me the Computer could be a communist itself all things considered.

Spoiler

Shhh don't let the others hear you. Their security clearances are too low for that kind of state secret.

 

[Steeldancer]

So, I saw that a while back there was this cool SE game based in the forums. Seems really meta. It was recently brought back to mind by the flood of bots the 17th shard has recently experienced. Unfortunately, this person, Adamir, seems to have not gotten on the shard for like a year, but I think this game would be uber cool to run at some point, in some form. Here's the original idea- 

 

[MacThorstenson]

That does sound really awesome, if it were able to be run, it would need a lot of people tho.

[Steeldancer]

I was thinking it would probably need to be simplified a bunch, all the items and forums we could get rid of. Although, we could add new elements- like a Discord PM mechanic, and an Arcanum thing, and call code monkeys Mestivs instead. We could have various roles named after various sharders, which would be hilarious. But I agree, its a little complex for how many players we would be able to get on this. It would also be fun as an Anonymous game. 

[MacThorstenson]

The anonymous game Idea is really a great idea, we would also probably have to get rid of the reputation points.

How successful was the location mechanic is QF8? It sounds cool, but really hard to implement, if people really liked it, then I think that it should be kept, but if not then completely get rid of it.

I also had this idea where there could be a role that temporarily gets the opportunity to spy on the spammers doc, but the only way they can talk about what they found is by encoding it into their posts. The code would be set by the GM, and that person wouldn't be allowed to tell their teammates the code.

[Sart]

The Melee (QF Game)

Flavor: Every year, students from Armedius Academy participate in a free-for-all tournament known as the Melee. You're going to be one of those students, hoping to take top prize.

Rules: This is a free-for-all game. There are no teams in this game. Each player starts the game with 1 HP. When you have 0 HP, you are eliminated. The last man standing wins the cup. If the game ends with all players dying, the person who survived longest with the most kills will be the winner. Cycles are 48 hours long, but have no day-night distinctions.

Cycle 0: To prepare for the upcoming battle, each student is given ample time to prepare their defenses. You can choose from these options.

• Ballintain Defense (4-point circle) The simplest defense, perfect for those who favor going on the offense. You cannot make Lines of Forbiddance, but your Lines of Vigor deal double damage.
• Matson Defense (6-point circle) A medium difficulty defense that relies heavily on chalklings. You start with 1 chalkling already drawn.
• Taylor Defense (9-point circle) One of the hardest defenses to draw, but it is highly defensible. You start with 1 additional HP.

Be wary! If more than a third of the players chooses one defense, people will be expecting it, so half the players who chose that defense will be eliminated at the start of the game.

With defenses up, our brave Rithmatists will frantically draw 3 types of lines to defend themselves. Each cycle, you can choose one of these options.

• Line of Forbiddance: Give a player (usually yourself) one HP this turn only.
• Line of Vigor: Attack another player, causing them to lose one HP.
• Line of Making: Draw a chalkling on the ground, or send them towards your enemies. When they attack, they deal N damage to N players, where N is the number of chalklings you control.

The order of actions is Forbiddance, then Vigor, then Making. Have fun.

[MacThorstenson]

That sounds like a fun game.

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

16 hours ago, Sart said:

Cycle 0: To prepare for the upcoming battle, each student is given ample time to prepare their defenses. You can choose from these options.

• Ballintain Defense (4-point circle) The simplest defense, perfect for those who favor going on the offense. You cannot make Lines of Forbiddance, but your Lines of Vigor deal double damage.
• Matson Defense (6-point circle) A medium difficulty defense that relies heavily on chalklings. You start with 1 chalkling already drawn.
• Taylor Defense (9-point circle) One of the hardest defenses to draw, but it is highly defensible. You start with 1 additional HP.

Be wary! If more than a third of the players chooses one defense, people will be expecting it, so half the players who chose that defense will be eliminated at the start of the game.

Unless the number of players is divisible by 3, you're guaranteed to lose over a sixth of the players before the game starts. Maybe increase the threshold to ~40% or round it up to the nearest whole number?

 

[Sart]

@Devotary of Spontaneity I was planning on rounding up, so that we wouldn't lose too many people. Still, it's very likely that people will die on Cycle 0. This game will not be merciful.

[Jondesu]

I’m still working out the rules, but I wanted to put out there that I have an LG planned with a LotR theme that needs a pass from one of the AG winners if I’m going to be able to run it. It’s based around a journey to discover and then defeat a Balrog in the southern nations, past Gondor. I did a role playing story years ago that I saved, and the write ups will largely come from there, and should be extremely detailed and entertaining. My own character will provide the main storyline, and since he can’t die, I know the arc I’ll have it take. :-D

The rules will involve treachery, spying, sabotage, etc, and some fun rules, including the return of mid-cycle kills (though not via guns, since that wouldn’t fit the flavor). I’ll post them here too once I pull it all together, but I wanted to see if I could pique the interest of whoever gets to be in control of the passes for non-Sanderson games ahead of time.

[Straw]

@Sart Will there be PMs? What will players use the thread for?

Edited January 25, 2018 by Straw

[Sart]

38 minutes ago, Straw said:

@Sart Will there be PMs? What will players use the thread for?

PMs will be open on Cycle 0, so that friends can coordinate strategies together. After Cycle 0, PMs will be closed, so the thread will be the only place to make arrangements. There will be an inactivity filter based on people not posting in the thread. Hopefully there will be some roleplay in there as well.

[MacThorstenson]

On 1/23/2018 at 0:27 AM, Sart said:

Cycle 0: To prepare for the upcoming battle, each student is given ample time to prepare their defenses. You can choose from these options.

•  

would this be put in a pm to the gm, or posted on the thread?

[Sart]

2 hours ago, MacThorstenson said:

would this be put in a pm to the gm, or posted on the thread?

This would be an action submitted to the GM.

[Straw]

Silence (QF):

Basics:

 

-There are PMs in this game.
-This game is role madness.
-At the start of each cycle, the roles and alignments of the dead will be announced. However, the names of the dead players will not be announced.
-There will be no vote counts in the writeup.
-This is a conversion game.
-If a player doesn’t post for two consecutive cycles, they will die.

Alignments:

 

Radiants: Your win condition is to kill all of the Skybreakers.
Skybreakers: You have a doc and a kill. Your win condition is to outnumber the Radiants.

Roles:

 

All roles in red are Skybreaker only, and all roles in green are Radiant only.
Nale: You start the game as the only member of the Skybreakers. You have an extra life. Over the course of the game, you can convert three people to the Skybreakers.
Windrunner: Each cycle, you can protect one player.
Skybreaker: Each cycle, a random Skybreaker will have the ability to scan a player, discovering their role and alignment.
Dustbringer: Each cycle, you can kill a player.
Edgedancer: Each cycle, you automatically have one random vote removed from you.
Truthwatcher: Each cycle, you can scan one player, discovering if they are dead.
Lightweaver: You can choose how you will appear to scans.
Elsecaller: Each cycle, you can roleblock a player.
Willshaper: You can survive on kill.
Stoneward: Your vote cannot be manipulated.
Bondsmith: You cannot be converted by the Skybreakers.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Straw

[A Joe in the Bush]

Fake Lives

This is a Sanderson Elimination Quick Fix game set in the Perfect State Universe. If you haven't, you can learn everything you need to know by reading the first chapter for free.

This conflict takes place in the Virtual World of Alornia. Kai's Machineborn are being hacked, and turned into Melhi's Bots.

Melhi's Bots are a Conversion Faction, only starting with one player: Sophie who has multiple lives. She can trade them in to convert players to her cause. If there is a Bot who is not Sophie, all the Bots have access to a doc, and the faction can make a kill.

But there are a few twist's on this conversion. If a player had the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th most votes on them that cycle, or the previous cycle, they cannot be converted, allowing for preventative voting. In addition, Sophie cannot convert villagers that have a role. Because of this, Sophie can target a list of up to 3 players to convert per turn. If her first choice has a role, they are notified that Sophie attempted to convert them, and the next player on the list will be converted.

The Machineborn only have 3 Unique roles. These roles pass on to a random roleless player of any Alignment when they die, and each time they pass on, they get Stronger.

The Knight can defend a player from an attack. The Knight Errant can Defend a player from an attack or a conversion. And The Knight Lancer can Defend or Kill a Player.

The Steward can Target a player and learn if they have been converted. The Grand Steward can move a player's vote. The Royal Steward can learn a player's alignment.

The Lover can cancel one vote on a player. The Fiance can cancel a player's action and vote. The Spouse can block a player's action and vote, and prevent them from speaking outside the thread for the next cycle.

Edited February 6, 2018 by A Joe in the Bush

[MacThorstenson]

6 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

But there are a few twist's on this conversion. If a player had the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th most votes on them that cycle, or the previous cycle, they cannot be converted, allowing for preventative voting. In addition, Sophie cannot convert villagers that have a role. Because of this, Sophie can target a list of up to 3 players to convert per turn. If her first choice has a role, they are notified that Sophie attempted to convert them, and the next player on the list will be converted.

This sounds like a really fun game! Two questions though, the first is what happens with two people tied with the most votes for a lynch? Is it randomly decided, or multiple lynchings. The second is, what happens for tied votes for second, third, and fourth place? if the person with the most votes has 3 and then there are 2 people with 2 votes and 2 people with one vote, how would that turn out? Would the people with two votes be tied for 2nd so they couldn't be converted, or would they be 2nd and third so they couldn't be converted? If the second scenario is true, then how will you determine which of the next players gets the 4th place for most votes?

[A Joe in the Bush]

Tied votes will be randomly decided.

If there is a tie in the 2nd 3rd or 4th most votes, 3 players at random will become unconvertable.

[Seonid]

So - got a question for the community.  I'm going to be GMing a game in the near future.

However,  I'm up for both an MR and an LG, and they look like they'll overlap. So, i wanted to know which sounded more interesting to play next.

The LG would be another Shard game, a sequel to LG29, incorporating a number of new insights about the nature of the shards.

The MR is an anonymous game involving kandra and bodyswapping.

I'm taking suggestions as to which one I should run and which one I should delay.